Hear one market, see another.
Live Trading:
MarketSound™ Webcast
MarketSound™ Pro
Training:
MarketSound™ QuoteTrainer™
MarketSound™ TradingSimulator
» Trading Methods using MarketSoundT
MarketSound™ brings you an "Internet first" with our Webcast application.
Now you can hear an electronic market in real time and real voice over the Internet: this audio environment was only previously available to the professional trader on a physical trading floor or to professional market makers in bank dealing rooms. To turn your PC into a virtual trading floor, giving you a feel for the market as if you were standing in the futures pit, you need to:
- download the MarketSound™ Webcast software onto your sound-enabled PC
- connect to a data-providing website powered by MarketSound™
MarketSound™ Webcast gives you a major advantage in trading futures, options or stocks: indices often move before the individual stocks, and so by listening to them you can catch market turns faster. Learn about professional trading methods using MarketSound™.
NEW Upgrade Available! Users can now add two more commentators to Webcast. Once downloaded you will be able to switch easily between the commentators.
If you are unfamiliar with squawkbox terminology, download our free QuoteTrainer: the trading game that makes audio price quotes an intuitive and natural part of your trading.
Data Providing Exchanges
The CME are using MarketSound™ Webcast for the: E-Mini S&P 500™, E-Mini Nasdaq Index™ and the Fortune e-50™ contract.
After downloading and installing Webcast you will need to go to the CME Quote page to listen to MarketSound. You may need to refresh/reload the CME quote page. At the website, simply choose your contract and click ™Start Audio™. Once it is running, you can minimize the browser window. Note: On slow connections the CME's yellow quote box may require a long time to load (first time only). A gray box appears while it is loading. 
In addition the TradingSimulator can broadcast a specified market's activity using MarketSound™ technology. This provides a fully interactive virtual trading environment.
Traders quickly learn to react to global market events and can even hear themselves trade. The MarketSound™ TradingSimulator requires MarketSound™ Pro and playback data files from MarketSound™.
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Connect your mind to the market
Hear your electronic market in real time and real voice. Let our artificial intelligence software analyze and prioritize data faster than the human eye. Connect your mind to the market, not your eye to a screen.
MarketSound™ software turns electronic market data into audio-based information, enabling traders to 'hear' trading activity in real time. MarketSound™ broadcasts trading information through three audio elements, the Market Commentator, Virtual Pit™ and the Crowd.
The Market Commentator is an artificial intelligence system uniquely able to absorb, prioritize and verbalize data faster than the human eye and mind. It translates the flow of electronic market data provided by a real time feed, such as Reuters, Bridge or a front-end system, into informative real time commentary broadcast over the PC's audio system. You hear:
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The Virtual Pit gives voice to the actual trading actions of motivated buyers and sellers in an electronic market, dramatically increasing user's ability to follow trading activity. Common trading language ("BUY'EM!" and "SOLD!") along with volume control quickly convey trade size, direction, and frequency.
The Crowd adds the ambient sound of an open outcry-trading floor. It becomes louder or quieter depending on market activity.
The combined elements enable the trader to listen and pick up information they might otherwise miss because of the speed at which trading occurs. Users may listen to the 3 elements simultaneously or toggle them on/off individually. With MarketSound™ functioning as your personal trading assistant you:
- Don™t miss critical market events
- Assimilate more information
- Follow correlated markets
- Multitask ™ you don™t need to stare at your screen!
It includes:
- Real human voices (not synthesized) Artificial Intelligence to select the highest priority commentary (not robotic)
- A system that adapts to any market condition (doesn™t fall behind in fast markets)
- Simultaneous broadcast of concurrent market events
- Patent pending technology
Data Source
- ReutersIDNDDE
- Reuters Triarch SSL4
- Bloomberg
- Bridge Station
- Eurex API
- Front-end Trading Systems (ISVs)
- Any data source that can paste live links into Excel:
Required fields are Bid, Bid Size, Offer, Offer Size, Last Trade Price and Total Daily Volume. - TibRendezvous API
- Liffe API
MarketSound's development team can write customized connectivity where required
In addition the TradingSimulator can broadcast a specified market's activity using MarketSound™ technology. This provides a fully interactive virtual trading environment.
Traders quickly learn to react to global market events and can even hear themselves trade. The MarketSound™ TradingSimulator requires MarketSound™ Pro and playback data files from MarketSound™.
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MarketSound™ QuoteTrainer
The MarketSound™ QuoteTrainer is an arbitrage game that will teach you to trade faster and better by using audio quotes.
For the novice it includes a straightforward tutorial that explains:
- Trading language and conventions
- The concept of trading correlated markets
More experienced traders can practice trading at different skill levels and become very fast at click trading. Tutoring hints are used interactively to show where profit opportunities are being missed.
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MarketSound™ TradingSimulator
The MarketSound™ TradingSimulator is a professional training application that allows traders to practice with real market data, either live or pre-recorded, in a controlled environment. It gives users the experience of trading actual electronic markets without risking any money. It is fully interactive and incorporates MarketSound's audio technology. It is designed like a typical front-end system and is the first fully realistic virtual training environment for electronic market trading.
The user can select up to four markets and set corresponding trade sizes. Single click trading is used in a standard trading window to place orders, lift offers and hit bids. Buy and Sell Orders, Profit & Loss with Total, Open Positions and Trade History are all clearly displayed. The user can jump to any time within the pre-recorded training data, re-play key events and speed-up the playback. It is fully interactive, in that the user's trading actions are reflected in the market he or she is trading.
In addition the TradingSimulator can broadcast a specified market's activity using MarketSound™ technology. This provides a fully interactive virtual trading environment.
Traders quickly learn to react to global market events and can even hear themselves trade. The MarketSound™ TradingSimulator requires MarketSound™ Pro and playback data files from MarketSound™.
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Trading Methods using MarketSound™
Futures and Options Traders: Listen to live activity, hear the market and feel the flow of trading activity. Use MarketSound™ to enhance your futures and options trading.
Stock Daytraders: Listen to the stock indices and hear the market turn first. Usually the stock indices lead the individual stocks. By following the indices you can jump onto trends in your stocks faster.
DayTrading Methods Using MarketSound™
1. Tips and Hints - Basics of Listening
2. Chart Points - Support and Resistance Levels
3. Emotional Market Reversals
4. Large Bid or Offer Orders
5. Stop Order Locations
6. Market Reversal Opportunities
7. Limit Up - Limit Down
1. Tips and Hints - Basics of Listening
Up Trends: Listen for bidders marching their bids higher. The Commentator will report and you will hear occasional flurries of progressively higher bids: "22 bid, 23 bid, 24 bid". In the Virtual Pit™ you will hear barrages of "buy'em, buy'em, BUY'em, buy'em" as pro-active buyers lift the offers.
Down Trends: Listen for sellers marching their offer prices lower. The Commentator will report and you will hear occasional progressions of lower offers: "At 24, At 23, At22". In the Virtual Pit™ you will hear sequences of "sold, sold, sold.... " as pro-active sellers hit bids.
Pace of Change: Listen for how fast the market is moving up or down. The faster the acceleration of price change, the closer the market is nearing a climax and reversal. Listen for clues in the Virtual Pit™. In an uptrend if you hear occasional buying (only a few "buy'em's"), followed by more insistent buying which culminates in a sharp price increase along with a panic of many "buy'em's" in the Virtual Pit™, you are probably witnessing a price climax. A fast and swift reversal usually follows.
Bid/Offer Spread: Listen for how tight or wide is the bid/offer
spread. A wide spread, for example 5 to 10 points in the E-Mini Nasdaq
100 will indicate either volatile market conditions, or lack of trading
participants. For example during lunchtime or before a long weekend, traders
may pull the orders causing a widening of the bid/offer spread. This is
a good time to look at charts, read market reports, look at the newspaper,
etc. Nevertheless, you can still be connected to the market through your
ears. The Commentator will tell you any major changes and you will hear
when the bid/offer spread tightens and activity in the Virtual Pit™ picks
up.
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2. Chart Points - Support and Resistance Levels
Look at an intraday or daily chart of the major stock index futures E-mini S&P™, E-mini Nasdaq Index™ and the Fortune E-50™. Identify major support and resistance points. These levels may be recent highs or lows, yesterday's high or low, trend line support or resistance, a major psychological number (e.g. 1,500) a recent double bottom (top), pivot points, etc. The important thing is to identify the price levels.
As the futures market approaches these identified levels, listen to MarketSound™. Listen for action in the Virtual Pit™ and/or price reporting from the Commentator that shows the support (resistance) level is being "broken" or taken out. As soon as the market is offered (bid) at or through the key price level, there is a good probability of continued price action in the same direction. On the other hand, if the market "fails" to move through this key level then listen for price reversal activity.
Remember that you do not need to look at the last price information on your trading screen since MarketSound™ will be broadcasting this to you. This allows you to focus on watching and trading your target stocks, futures or options. No time is wasted watching the key benchmark stock index futures. You will have a valuable lead on other daytraders.
When you hear a major support or resistance level being "taken out" this
is a potential opportunity to execute trades in the stock market. You
may want to buy certain stocks when the futures market is moving higher,
or you may want to fade (sell) weak stocks as they attempt to rally with
the stock index futures. In any event, MarketSound™ will provide you an
edge in executing your trades around important support and resistance
levels.
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3. Emotional Market Reversals
Excellent trading opportunities appear when there is a fast and dramatic reversal in the market. Due to the liquidity of the major stock index futures, these reversals first occur in the futures markets, allowing for individual stock trading opportunities.
There are two main ways to listen for an emotional market reversal. The first is a reversal in the direction of trading in the Virtual Pit™ along with a large increase in volume from the Crowd. Something has just changed, and futures traders are aggressively trying to "close out" positions or get aboard the new direction. The volume and emotion is obvious. For example, the market has been drifting higher for the past hour. All of a sudden the Virtual Pit™ turns sellers, and the Crowd roars to life. You hear a litany of "sold, SOLD, sold, SOLD" from the Virtual Pit™ as traders actively sell the best bid prices (e.g. "hit the bid"). Furthermore, the increased activity of the market causes the Crowd to explode with activity.
In an instant of MarketSound's audio broadcast you have been tipped on a new stock market trend. This is an opportunity to exit positions or enter orders for the new market direction.
The second way to identify turning points is to listen for large orders.
For example, the futures market has been trending lower for the past 30
minutes, and all of a sudden there is a LARGE bid order at current prices.
The market may have run into a wall of buyers, and quickly reverses as
short sellers start to buy-in their positions. In this example, listen
for the Virtual Pit ™ to explode with buy-side activity. Listen for a
barrage of "buy'em, buy'em, BUY'EM, buy,em" as trapped shorts may
be forced to cover and new buyers enter the market. This process can lead
to an emotional trend reversal. Listen carefully. The clues to determining
the timing of emotional reversals can be found in listening to the Virtual
Pit™.
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4. Large Bid or Offer Orders
Large orders may appear at any time, but usually are placed near key support and resistance levels. When you first hear the Commentator report a large bid or offer, you need to listen for the extent of the market's reaction. Do you begin hearing active trading in the Virtual Pit™? How high does the market bounce after running into a large bid order? How quickly? MarketSound™ provides valuable information clues as to what is happening in the market and possible ways to react to unfolding trade opportunities.
In many cases, the market typically "checks" to see if the order is "real" by trading back down to the same level where the bid appeared. If the order is gone or cancels, then the market will probably trade lower. If there is still a real buy order, and traders are caught short, then watch for the market to trade higher. On the other hand, if the order actually trades (someone sells the large bid) you will hear a loud voice yell "SOLD" from the Virtual Pit™. Now look out below: prices are probably headed lower. Moreover, this large trade location has now become a pivot point, acting as a key support or resistance level. Return
5. Stop Order Locations
Buy Stop Orders are typically placed above key resistance levels and sell stops are placed below key support levels. In addition, there will usually be Stop Orders placed above or below important "big figure" price levels (e.g. 4,000 in the E-Mini Nasdaq 100 contract or 1,500 in the E-Mini S&P 500 contract). When Stop Orders are triggered in an electronic market there may be a very abrupt price movement in the direction of the stop orders.
For example, Buy Stop Orders placed above 4,001 in the E-Mini Nasdaq 100 contract would be triggered as soon as the market traded 4,001. These Stop Orders become "market buy orders" causing an immediate jump in price if there is a lack of available sell orders. Prices quickly shoot higher. How is the market trading? In an electronic market, like the E-Mini index contracts, the most effective way to answer this question is by listening to the Virtual Pit™. It is difficult to follow "fast" market activity with only your eyes. But you can listen effectively.
You must now assess how the stop orders are being filled. Normally, this is very difficult because prices move too quickly. However, with the Virtual Pit™ you can hear the trading activity; your ears "pick-up" the information that your eyes fail to see. (This is one of the secrets of successful floor trading - floor traders are immersed in their market and can hear all the trading activity around them, allowing them to react more quickly and effectively.) Back to our example, there are several possible outcomes to the activated buy stops at 4,001. If you can determine the outcome during its formation you may have some excellent trading opportunities. Hearing allows you to decipher the market. Below are some of the possibilities:
- A quick and explosive upward price movement with very little trading
until a large sell order caps the market's rise. Further trading action
will determine if this is a false break-out or the beginning of a major
upside move. In this case, you would not hear much buying activity in
the Virtual Pit™. However, you would hear the Crowd's volume increase
reflecting the volatile conditions. (Another audio cue that opportunity
exists.) Traders are chasing the market higher without being able to
buy anything. There are few, if any offers on the way up. You do not
hear a progression of "buy'em", "buy'em", etc. as you would expect in
a rising market. There is unsatisfied buying demand. Until you hear
buyers lifting offers you can expect the market to move higher. Only
after the appearance of a large sell order at much higher prices does
upward action stop. Does this large offer trade? (Do you hear a large
"BUY'EM"?) Or do more sellers appear offering the price down? By listening
to the Virtual Pit™ and Commentator you will be able to answer these
questions.
- Here is another possible outcome of the stop orders. There is an immediate
moderate upward price move BUT this time you hear lots of buying action
in the Virtual Pit™ (Buy'em, buy'em, BUY'EM, BuyEm, etc.) All of the
buy stop orders are being readily satisfied at moderately higher price
levels. Resting sell orders or new sell orders entering the market counter
the instantaneous buying demand. Has all the buying dried up? The key
is to listen how quickly sellers offer the market down. Do you hear
the Commentator broadcast something equivalent to "at 15, at 14, at
13, etc." as the sell orders compete to lower the offer price. More
aggressive sellers may start hitting the bid as the Virtual Pit™ broadcasts
"sold, sold, sold." In this scenario you've heard a false upside breakout
due to triggered stops. This may be a good opportunity to sell long
positions or sell short.
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6. Market Reversal Opportunities
The stock market is known for large one-way moves. Trading and waiting for these one directional moves can be very profitable. However, it is difficult to determine when a large move is imminent. You need to stay connected to the market to maintain a feel for its flow and state. On most trading days it is typical for the stock index futures to experience many reversal moves for each large one-way move. Therefore, learning how to trade the reversal moves will give you more trading opportunities. It will also prepare you for catching the larger moves. The less involved you are, the harder it is to catch those major moves. MarketSound™ dramatically improves your ability to trade these reversal moves.
Look at your charts and note any important (and recent) highs or lows. Wait for the market to trade through these levels. If there is no real trade flow (e.g. you don't hear very much activity in the Virtual Pit™ ) and professionals are simply "searching" to set off stop orders then the market will usually reverse. As soon as you hear the market bid (offer) back at the recent low (high) then you have a good chance of participating in a small market reversal. At the same time, listen for pro-active buying (selling) in the Virtual Pit™. For example if yesterday's recent low was 1,492.00 in the E-Mini S&P 500® and the market trades down through this level. It tries to trade lower but there is no follow through selling, but nevertheless records a new low to 1,491.25. Then the market starts moving higher. As soon as you hear the market go 1,492.00 bid the reversal move may be in motion. Listen for proactive buyers lifting the offer - you will hear "buy'em, buy'em, buy'em, etc. in the Virtual Pit™.
This example reveals a new short-term uptrend. Trade this market from
the long side. You must now continue to listen for clues that the uptrend
is healthy. Are buyers still lifting offers? Or, are sellers beginning
to dominate. The Virtual Pit will reveal the motivations of buyers and
sellers. If the market starts moving lower - your major pivot point is
1,492.00. If the Commentator announces "at 92" look out below, the buying
may have dried up and a retest of the recent low is in the cards.
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7. Limit Up - Limit Down
Occasionally the stock market experiences excessive one-way price volatility, which in turn causes the stock index futures to go "limit up" or "limit down". Futures exchanges impose limits in order to help reduce excessive volatility. In the E-Mini S&P 500 and E-Mini Nasdaq 100 futures there are several different price and time limits depending on the time of day or whether the contract is in its final month. These price and time limits change from time to time and you should check at the exchange website for updates.
There are at least two major things to consider when the market is limit up or limit down:
a) The extent of the "gap" opening after the current time-in-force limit expires.
b) Limit up or limit down price reversals
Gap Openings - As soon as the current time-in-force price limit expires, the market will gap higher (if limit up) or lower (if limit down). There is now a gap on the intraday price chart. Markets usually "fill" gaps on the price chart. Therefore, listen for a market reversal suggesting that the market will proceed to fill the gap and trade back to the previous price limit level. For example, if prices gapped higher after being limit up, listen for up-to-down reversal activity. You may hear the Virtual Pit™ turn from buy activity to sell activity or you may hear the Commentator announce a large sell order and then begin to hear the price offered lower. If the price goes below the gap opening price level there is a good chance that prices will trade back down to the previous "limit up" price, and fill the gap on the charts. Depending on size of the price gap this could be an excellent trading opportunity.
Limit Reversals - A limit down reversal is when the market is limit offer for several minutes, and then slowly the limit offer price begins to trade. You will hear "buy'em, buy'em, buy'em" in the Virtual Pit™. The Commentator will also report the trade to you. Next, the market is "bid for" at limit down. The Commentator will tell you the new bid. In effect the market has gone from all sellers to all buyers. Expect the beginning of a short covering rally.
The same applies to a limit up reversal: when the market is limit bid
for several minutes and then prior to the time-in-force price limit expiring,
the turns sellers, being offered at the limit up price. There is a good
chance of a swift downward movement in the market as traders liquidate
long positions. In either case, the market turn can be very fast. In these
limit situations listen attentively to the Virtual Pit™, Crowd and Commentator
for potential reversals; volatile markets are fast and emotional and can
reverse quickly.
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